Wearing a crisp white blouse and minimal make up, 41-year-old Martine looked decades younger than her years as she posed for the picture ahead of her appearance on Loose Women on Thursday.

Martine showed off her shorter locks on Instagram (Image: martinemccutcheon/Instagram)

Martine is more used to wearing her raven locks long (Image: ITV)

Martine appearing in Red Nose Day Actually earlier in the year (Image: Comic Relief Ltd)

She captioned the pouty shot: "A little good morning smacker from me today! On my way to see the lovely @loosewomen "

The verdict with Martin's fans was largely positive, with many praising the star for her bold choice.

"You look so young with your hair like that," said one fan.

"You haven't aged since your Tiff days!!" another fan told the former Eastender.

"A natural beauty," complimented a third.

The singer embraced the chance as she promotes her new solo material

Martine is currently busy promoting her comeback album Lost and Found, her first since 2002.

In a recent interview for the Independent , Martine spoke about her struggles with fame after appearing in the hugely successful Love Actually.

She said: “It was horrific. I felt really upset: I had this dream of Hollywood and what it would be like, I believed in it, I thought it would fix everything. But when I got there and felt the desperation in the room, I just went home and cried. I was heartbroken, I looked at everything in a very different light after that.”

Martine also revealed the stars of the film got together prior to their Comic Relief reunion earlier this year.

She said: "“We had a dinner called Supper Actually which Richard threw for us and we all sat round the table. It was lovely to see everyone. I was saying, ‘It’s a weird industry isn’t it?’ and even Colin Firth turned to me and said, ‘Yeah, we all think it’s mad, it’s not just you.’ Some of them had known about everything I’ve gone through and they said to me, ‘Don’t ever give up, you’re too good to ever give up.’ I gave Hugh the biggest cuddle.”